Komsomolskaya, Moscow (Russia) – Shall we dance? Looking more like a ballroom than a metro station, this baroque-style stop was inspired by a wartime speech of Stalin's.

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Fulton Transit Center, New York – Fulton Center train station in lower Manhattan isn't for creatures of the dark -- at least during daylight hours.

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Olaias, Lisbon – A welcome leftover from Lisbon's 1998 world expo, which celebrated 500 years of Portuguese inventions.

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Westminster, London – London Underground might be the world's oldest metro but this station has to be one of the most futuristic-looking. The austere design opened days before the new millennium.

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T-Centralen, Stockholm – Stockholm's central station gets stranger the further you descend, until you reach the cave-like platform level, with its abstract floral designs.

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Bockenheimer Warte, Frankfurt – Like a reminder of the things whizzing around beneath your feet, Zbigniew Peter Pininski's design suggests a subway car that went off the rails.

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'Fosteritos,' Bilbao (Spain) – Called "Little Fosters" after their ubiquitous architect-creator, Norman Foster, these station entrances sum up Bilbao's fondness for up-to-the-minute style.

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Palais Royal -- Musée du Louvre, Paris – It's hard to stand out in a city as beautiful as Paris. This beaded metro entrance design from 2000 doesn't try to be meek.

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Admiralteyskaya, St. Petersburg – Russia's subway stations are among the world's most impressive. This 2011 addition skilfully blends classic and modern design.

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Plac Wilsona, Warsaw – This 2005 underground stop named after U.S. President Woodrow Wilson won a metro design award -- possibly from visiting UFOs.

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Staromestska, Prague – Actually, all of Prague's stations deserve a place here for the unforgettable dimpled wall design, different for each stop and just on the fun side of good taste.

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Story highlights

"Metro envy" has produced some stunners in Europe

At 50 meters deep, Toledo station, in Naples, feels filled with light

Part of the oldest metro, London's Westminster looks super-futuristic

A Frankfurt station shows a train car crashing through the sidewalk

Opening in 1863, London has the world's oldest underground railway but it also has, in austerely beautiful Westminster, one of Europe's most futuristic-looking stations.

The first metro might have been uncomfortable and unhealthy (toxic steam often entered the train cars due to poor ventilation) but it soon became clear that few cities of any size should be without one.

By the mid-1920s, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Milan had their own subterranean networks -- with cleaner, electric-powered trains and often also beating London's Tube in the aesthetic appeal of their stations.

Moscow joined the party in 1935 and now boasts one of the busiest metro systems in the world -- carrying more than 6.5 million passengers a day.

But as the following stations show, more than 150 years after the London Underground opened, there's a lot more to a great subway stop than getting from A to B.

Seeking to distinguish his design from the unobtrusive minimalism of other Frankfurt stations, architect Zbigniew Peter Pininski outdid himself with the fantastical entrance to Bockenheimer Warte.

Depicting a train car crashing through the sidewalk, it leaves commuters either shocked or bemused, but rarely indifferent.

8. "Fosteritos," Bilbao, Spain

"Little Fosters" signal Bilbao's forward-looking style.

Less than 20 years old, Bilbao's metro is the third-largest in Spain.

The curved-glass entrances of many of the stations -- affectionately nicknamed "Fosteritos" ("Little Fosters") after their creator, Lord Foster -- are considered prime examples of the city's modern, up-to-the-minute style.

The transparent structures admit plenty of daytime light and at night are lit up.

In a city as beautiful as Paris, this unconventional station entrance at Place Colette still stands out.

Completed in 2000 (the centennial year of the Paris metro), Jean-Michel Othoniel's "Kiosque des noctambules" ("Kiosk of the night owls") intertwines dazzling colored beads to form two protective cupolas.

A meeker design would be overshadowed by the close proximity of the Louvre Museum and surrounding classic architecture.

In this case, however, it adds a touch of cheeky hipness.

10. Admiralteyskaya, St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg's newest metro stop proves that classic and modern design can coexist harmoniously.

After many setbacks, the station finally opened for business in December 2011.

Stark curved ceilings and low lighting complement traditional marble and arched platforms in what's the deepest station in the network.

11. Plac Wilsona, Warsaw, Poland

And you thought the Soviets built impressive metros.

The Soviets built some extraordinary metro stations but this 2005 effort, named after U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, showed that a capitalist Poland could come up with some beauties, too.